"WASHINGTON -President Bush said Tuesday that "I take responsibility" for failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and said the disaster raised broader questions about the government's ability to respond to natural disasters as well as terror attacks.And then here we get to in some respects a more serious question.
"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government," Bush said at joint White House news conference with the president of
Iraq.
"To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said."
"The president was asked whether people should be worried about the government's ability to handle another terrorist attack given failures in responding to Katrina.I was pleased to read this and to see that the new head of FEMA seems to be more appropriate for the job than the prior officeholder.
"Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack? That's a very important question and it's in the national interest that we find out what went on so we can better respond," Bush replied."
8 comments:
This is indeed good news, and if he is motivated by a genuine sense of responsibility rather than publicity, my hat is off to him!
Hmmm, is he taking responsibility for the 45 bodies found in the hospital yesterday? What about the bodies floating down the street or the ones decomposing and becoming rat food? Maybe congress will consider impeachment hearings, since this much worse than a BJ in the Oval office.
Let's all consider:
Five of eight top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials came to their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters and now lead an agency whose ranks of seasoned crisis managers have thinned dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
FEMA's top three leaders -- Director Michael D. Brown, Chief of Staff Patrick J. Rhode and Deputy Chief of Staff Brooks D. Altshuler -- arrived with ties to President Bush's 2000 campaign or to the White House advance operation, according to the agency. Two other senior operational jobs are filled by a former Republican lieutenant governor of Nebraska and a U.S. Chamber of Commerce official who was once a political operative. This means he put people in charge with no experience and let those who had experience leave.
I feel much better that he is taken responsibility.
I voted for Clinton twice and have no regrets, but I can trace my displeasure with politicians to his administrations because that is when I witnessed partisan politics at their worst.
I am sad to say that I see no distinctions between that time frame and now.
I thought that the behavior of the Republican party was abhorrent then and I find the Democrats to be no better now.
This is in large part why I consider myself to be an independent. Too many jerks who speak to promote themselves with no sense of decency or altruism.
They went into public service to serve the public, not to garner accolades like some kind of pseudo-celebrity.
I think that there are so many problems with Katrina it is not funny, but I still hold the local and state gov'ts responsible first.
Nagin didn't provide supplies to the Superdome/Convention Centers. I don't buy the argument that he didn't have the resources because I haven't seen a thing that shows me he asked for help before this happened.
Bush is responsible for the Fed response and the FEMA fakeout. The buck may stop at his desk, but before it does it has several more stops to make.
I agree with you regarding politicians on both sides.
How sad is it that it takes such a disaster for Bush to even hint that he made a mistake? The reason he has to accept any blame now is because reporters were there covering the story and not imbedded. Even still, photographers are fighting with the National Guard to take picture of dead bodies. The Bush gang is again trying to censure the press.
This is a mess that will be whitewashed by even more pushing of the blame to local government. Nagin said that he successfully got people to the stadium, which at the time had running water and supplies, but more people than expected showed up and got stuck there because the federal government did not know how to respond since Brownie had no previous experience.
BTW, we received an advance copy of Bush speech for Thursday, it will be posted tonight.
I don't remember if I blogged about this, but I had a discussion prior to the last election in which I recommended that Bush acknowledge having made some mistakes. If he would have come out and said that he was fooled by Saddam into believing that he was a bigger threat and that he would like to do things over I think that he could have killed the opposition.
It would have just leveled people and provided a platform on which to rebuild unity, but my name is not Karl Rove and I am just speculating with my own money.
I want to see a more aggressive press. I want to see them ask the hard questions but I also want to see them educate themselves too. Too many lack the background to really get into things and we get marshmallow questions and chocolate syrup answers.
As for Nagin, the man dropped the ball. His team should have had too much water, they should have had too much food. They should have been prepared and they were not.
He really could have taken those school buses we keep seeing and done more.
I am in agreement about Brown. The fact that he got that job is just sad and in some respects what is even sadder to me is that he took it. What the hell was he thinking.
It is one thing to take a position that you are not quite qualified for and learn on the job when it doesn't involve human life. How shameful.
Let me ask you this about Nagin and the buses: who was going to drive the buses when anyone with half an income left town?
How much water is too much and how do you know you have too much? I'm not sticking up for any of the elected officials involved with Katrina, I just don't want to see Bush supporters (I know that is not you)thinking that is their out for taking blame. You can see from Bush's answer about taking blame he was already passing the buck by pointing the finger at state officials. He someone as a child if he didn't get his way would kick the game over or take the football away.
Yes, today the moment I heard the words come out of his mouth (OUR PRESIDENT)while I was listening to the speech LIVE - I knew it would be a shock to many, actually I wrote tonight on my blog briefly on why I think he did. He pleaded with Gov Blanco to let the Federal Gov come in to the state prior to the hurricane coming ashore. She flat out refused before and shortly afterwards. I believe he feel guilty not over ruling her and the state - in ref: to Acts mentioned in my prevous posts...one goes back to 1906.
As far as being ready for terror attack...one answer NO!! It is extremely difficult to put 4 years into an air tight plan, as I stated on one of your other post...especially since our country has never had this type of war before with terrorist and what they are capable of. From our country to being discovered to 9/11, we are having to get wise quick and 4 years we have come a long ways, but still have a journey ahead to feel more secure...all this is in my opinion.
Nagin is the mayor and had plenty of time to make arrangements. He has influence over the city, fire department, police etc.
I don't think that Bush passed the buck, he said that he was responsible for the fed and that is correct.
There is plenty o' blame to go around.
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